Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Housing

10/04/2012

Eddy Dodson, Robbie Cadena and Charles Henry won a lottery of sorts Wednesday, but it wasn't the first time they beat the odds.

All three veterans, GIs recovering from devastating health woes, were given homes in a surprise ceremony.

Dodson's wife, Mary, shrieked.

Cadena, a San Antonio native, wept.

“Oh my Lord,” he said amid applause.

The veterans were given three-bedroom houses that were foreclosures or returned to Bank of America. They applied for the chance to get a home but didn't know if they'd won until the ceremony near Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.

How they wound up at the ceremony put on by Bank of America and Operation Homefront, a support group for wounded troops, is a story of wars that have claimed 6,616 lives and left 49,614 wounded.

It's also a story, the men say, of folks filling the void of a military and veterans care system that still leaves ailing troops in the lurch a decade into war. Ultimately, it's a tale of triumph.

So it is that Cadena, shot twice in the chest, uses drugs to numb pain caused by hundreds of bullet fragments still in his spine. When he awakens and can't go back to sleep, his wife, Joanie, stays up with him through the night.

Henry, the victim of an Afghan bomb blast that caused intestinal bleeding that never has stopped, had a tumor removed and has been diagnosed with new intestinal problems.

And Dodson, a sergeant flown out of Baghdad during his second tour, got a double-lung transplant Jan. 13, only to face a new, daily crisis — vulnerability to infections that can turn deadly.

“For me with my lungs, I mean, I can live 20 years, I might live two more years,” said the 48-year-old Dodson, who wore a surgical mask during the ceremony. “And I know with this house I can provide security for my family where when I do pass away they'll have somewhere secure to stay and not have to find an apartment.”